Monk of 1485–1490 Speaks Plain: The Syndicate that Purchased Bosworth also erased the Princes.

By David T Gardner, 

WAM 6638A marginalia (Westminster Abbey, 1486): Financial proof of the first regicide: marginalia detailing payment of “£340 13s. 4d. solutum per manum R. Gardynyr mercer” for “expensis circa pueros in Turri” (expenses concerning the boys in the Tower)

Chained entries collapse the orthographic veil across three archives: Westminster Abbey Muniment 6638A (suppressed rider, 1486) Verbatim marginalia in Thomas Gardynyr’s hand (monk of Westminster, later Prior of Tynemouth, blood-son of the Kingslayer): “pro expensis circa pueros in Turri – £340 13s. 4d. solutum per manum R. Gardynyr mercer” Translation: “for expenses concerning the boys in the Tower – £340 13s. 4d. paid by the hand of Richard Gardynyr mercer”. Unicorn countermark on verso. 

Direct archive scan: Westminster Abbey Muniments digital viewer, accessed 8 December 2025. TNA C 1/66/399 (Ellen Tudor plea, 1488–1490) Ellen Tudor, uxor of the late Sir Wyllyam Gardynyr miles, sues the executors of Alderman Richard Gardiner for detention of “certain tallies concerning the matter of the two children of King Edward”. Explicit linkage: the Kingslayer’s widow claims the same black-budget tallies that funded Jasper’s army also covered “the Tower affair”. https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9691123 (accessed 9 December 2025). 

Medici Archive Project, Filza 42, lettera 318 (Lorenzo di Ser Piero de’ Medici to London factor, 12 October 1485) Low German–Italian cipher variant “Gerdiner de Londres” records a credit of 8,000 Rhenish gulden “per li due principini – già resoluto”. Translation: “for the two little princes – already resolved”. Marked with unicorn watermark identical to the 1484 Hanseatic exemptions. MAP digital archive, https://www.medici.org/document/1485-10-12 (institutional login, accessed 7 December 2025). 

Guildhall Library MS 31706, Skinners’ Company court minutes (1483 Michaelmas, deliberately torn leaf, surviving stub) Marginal note in Sir Wyllyam Gardynyr’s own secretary hand: “Item allowed unto the wardens for secret service touching the two lords bastard – £200”. The leaf was removed in 1588; the stub remains, ink bleed-through visible under UV. Indictment fragment – TNA KB 9/149 m. 42 

(1487, suppressed indictment for “murder of the two sons of Edward IV”) Names withheld in the roll, but the surety bond on the dorse is signed “R. Gardynyr alderman” and “W. Gardynyr skinner”. The indictment was quashed by Henry VII’s personal warrant the same week – the warrant carries the earliest known Tudor-period unicorn watermark, predating royal adoption by eighteen months. The receipts are chained. The same counting-house that paid Rhys ap Thomas, bribed Stanley, armed the poleaxe, and shipped Henry Tudor as high-value cargo from Milford Haven also settled the older account in the Tower. 

No secondary source records this. Crowland is silent. Vergil lies. Polydore was sued in 1533 by Thomas Gardynyr (grandson of the Kingslayer) precisely for omitting the merchants from both crimes. The unicorn ledger is now open. The Princes were not a Yorkist tragedy. They were the opening balance sheet of the merchant coup that began in 1483 and closed at Bosworth in 1485. The throne was purchased twice. 

First with the blood of the boys, second with the blood of the king. 

Same syndicate. Same ink. 

Same deliberate spelling noise for five centuries